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Jason Colavito. You / your publisher are promoting the foith-coming book on James Dean with the following statement:: “Today, even though it is widely accepted that Dean was gay or bisexual, the story of his life and personal character continue to be colored by the prejudices of an earlier era and the work of often unscrupulous biographers and journalists.”

Specifically, I am curious who (by name) are these “unscrupulous biographers and journalists” that you are referring?

Lee Raskin

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Sure--I believe the publicist was referring to (among others) biographers Darwin Porter, Danforth Prince, Paul Alexander, T. T. Thomas (Jay Dratler), and a number of the tabloid and scandal magazine journalists, whom I critique in my book.

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Thank you.

Lee Raskin

James Dean Biographer / Published Author / Deaner

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great cover Jason! I look forward to ordering and reading the book in November! This is probably a dumb question, but how would you describe the book? Is it structured more like a traditional biography or more analytical on how Dean has been interpreted throughout the years? or both/neither/nor?

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It's classified as narrative nonfiction. The first ten chapters are a biographical narrative, and the last two deal with Dean's posthumous reception, though more as narrative than academic analysis.

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Great I'm sure it will go well.

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